Category: Photography Tips & Tricks

Quick tip: Flare control

By John Watson
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When you’re shooting towards a bright light source, like the sun, light may hit the lens directly. When that happens, flare will inevitably appear in your photos. Flare introduces strange reflections and robs contrast from your images. Lens hoods control flare by shading the lens.

Flare from sunlight hitting the lens
Flare from sunlight hitting the lens

But if you don’t have a hood or it isn’t working at the angle you need, use your hand. Raise your left hand to block the light source and shade your lens. You may have to hold your hand at arms length to get it out of the frame. On SLRs and DSLRs you can see the flare in the viewfinder so you’ll know when you’ve got it right. On point and shoots you can see the effect in the LCD.

Flare removed by shading the lens with my left hand
Flare removed by shading the lens with my left hand. (This image is darker because I also changed the exposure between shots.)

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A visit to the county fair

By John Watson
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There’s something fascinating about a county fair. I’d never been much of a fan of the whole concept until after I’d gotten hooked on photography. And then, one Summer, I went to the fair and brought my camera along. Maybe it was because photography had taught me how to see again. How to see the wonder and grotesquerie that abounds at a county fair. There are more photo opportunities per square meter than almost anyplace I can think of.

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Your light meter is stupid

By John Watson
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I’ve written about metering before but I thought I’d recap an important point about the light meter in your camera: it’s a stupid, stupid device. Which isn’t to say that it’s useless. Far from it. Your camera’s light meter is an extremely useful tool. But, you have to know when you can trust it and when you can’t.

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Vibration reduction/image stabilization video demonstration

By John Watson
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Camera shake is the bane of photographers everywhere. No photographer has perfectly steady hands. Once shutter speeds drop, camera shake begins to seriously affect image sharpness. Fortunately, there are solutions. Nothing will give you consistently sharper photos than a sturdy tripod and every photographer should have one. But there’s a high-tech solution, too: image stabilization. Read on to learn a little about this interesting technology and view a through-the-lens video demonstration of it in action.

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RAW vs. JPG: Myths and misconceptions

By John Watson
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Most digital cameras record JPG images because the JPG format provides a very high degree of fidelity for photographs in a very small amount of space. JPGs are high quality, small, can be viewed quickly and easily on any computer, and look great when printed. But JPGs, like all image formats, also have some limitations. RAW is another image format that addresses some of JPGs problems. But no format is perfect and RAW images have problems of their own.

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How to shoot fireworks

By John Watson
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Independence day is coming up in the USA (July 4th) and you’re bound to see a lot of articles start popping up about how to shoot fireworks. So many, in fact, that you might start to think it’s some kind of dark art (Ha! Dark, get it?). It’s pretty simple though, especially if you have a digital camera with a working LCD.

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How do you name your digital photographs?

By John Watson
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Each photograph I download from a memory card is automatically renamed with the date and time the image was shot. For example: 20060623_140123.jpg says that the photo was taken on June 23, 2006 at 2:01 PM (and 23 seconds). Each time photos are downloaded from a card, they’re put into a unique directory named after the current date. If I do more than one batch per day then a batch number is appended. For example: 2006_06_23 or 2006_06_23_01. For events or special occasions I’ll append a description to the folder name. The image download software that came with my Nikon does all of that for me but it wasn’t the default. Most image download software will allow you to do this and more.

It’s a nice naming system because each photo gets a unique identifier and it makes it easy to find the actual photo given the name or the date when you remember shooting it. Having a unique identifier for each photo is important if you’re selling prints since it allows your customers to tell you exactly which photo they want to buy without any misinterpretation (and if you’re licensing them for use you can put that ID in the license).

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An introduction to macro and close-up photography

By John Watson
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Macro photography is one of the most demanding disciplines of photography. The world of the small is a strange and unique place and makes some unusual demands on a photographer interested in capturing its beauty. Razor thin depth of field, extremely close working distances, and long exposure times combine to make macro photography a challenge. But it’s a challenge with a reward. Macros reveal a world that can’t be seen with the naked eye, alien landscapes, and strange creatures both beautiful and grotesque. I encourage you to try it. Many who do find a passion for macro photography they never knew existed.

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Tips for shooting a children’s birthday party

By John Watson
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As a father of two, I’ve shot my share of birthdays. My own kids’, sure, but also plenty of others on the never ending “birthday circuit.” You parents know what I’m talking about… My kids have more friends and have been invited to more birthday parties in six years than I’ve ever been to in my entire life. When I’m shooting a birthday, for myself or someone else, 90% of the photos are candid. I’ll do one or two posed group shots but candids are the truest way to capture the excitement and emotion of children at play.

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A solution for perfect group photos

By John Watson
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Microsoft Research Group ShotNext Saturday I’m going to be doing about 30 group portraits with two to three poses each. And if you’ve ever taken a group photograph, you know how frustrating it can be trying to get everyone looking the same way at the same time, not blinking, or generally not looking goofy.

If the group is paying attention it might only take two or three shots to get everyone synchronized. Fortunately for me, this is a dance studio so I’m not going to be dealing with inebriated party-goers. On the other hand, many of them are children. So what happens after the shoot when I find one or two photos where I didn’t notice someone blinking?

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